Is fasting a free health fix – or is it just a fad?

Restricting the amount you eat is said to fight disease, extend lifespan and improve wellbeing. As well as dieters, people with diabetes and MS could benefit

You probably first came across it with a pale-looking colleague slumped over their office desk. Or with The Fast Diet author Michael Mosely speaking effusively about it on television. Fasting, they’d have told you, is a great way to lose weight. It makes sense: eat fewer calories a couple of days a week, and don’t overeat on the others, and you’ll slim down. What’s less clear is the assumption that fasting from time to time can bring other benefits such as avoiding disease, keeping your brain sharp and even letting you live longer. With all this for the price of just a sprinkle of willpower though, surely it’s all too good to be true?

The answer is not straightforward. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the evidence is strongest with type 2 diabetes – a disease often caused by overeating. The disease means that a person can no longer control their blood sugar levels. Once diagnosed they are left staring down the barrel of a lifetime on medication, unless, think researchers at Newcastle University, they begin to fast.

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